Millennium 4C04: “The Judge”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“The Judge” (4C04)
Written by Ted Mann
Directed by Randy Zisk
Edited by Stephen Mark
Aired November 15, 1996
Summary
Dismembered remains provide Frank Black with a lead to the Judge, a vigilante who persuades aimless ex-cons to enforce a code of murderous personal justice.
Epigraph
“...the visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.”
Synopsis
The cafe in a Seattle bowling alley. An ex-con, Carl Nearman, stares fixedly at a beefy middle-aged man putting away a healthy slice of pie. After following him into the parking lot, Nearman knocks the man unconscious with a bowling ball, and whips out a knife.
A severed human tongue is mailed anonymously to Mrs. Annie Tisman, a middle-aged widow. Why would anyone send such an item to someone so ordinary? Bletcher tells Frank that over the last four years, three people have received severed body parts. Police have found no connection between any of the recipients, and worse, no bodies.
Frank, sensing an unusual element of mindfulness associated with the violence, sends for expert forensic pathologist, Cheryl Andrews. She detects a pattern change in the latest crime: for the first time, the body part was removed after the victim's death.
Bardale, a violent habitual offender just out of the penitentiary, is approached in a bar by the mastermind behind the series of murders, a man who calls himself the Judge. The Judge offers Bardale a chance to "serve a higher purpose"—the meting out of personal justice. Bardale's first job for his new employer is the execution of his predecessor, Carl Nearman.
The body of the man in the bowling alley is discovered and identified as Detective Mellen, a retired Seattle cop. Frank realizes Nearman could never have plotted such intricate crimes. Someone of sharp intelligence must be orchestrating the murders. When Frank discovers that Mellen's false testimony had sent Mrs. Tisman's late husband to jail, he grasps the killer's motive. The killer is righting wrongs; employing men already prone to rough and violent justice to do his dirty work.
The Judge delivers his next sentence on Biggs, a landlord whose negligence caused the death of an elderly tenant. As executioner, Bardale is to amputate Biggs' leg below the knee while Biggs is still alive and conscious. Biggs' foot is found by a postal worker in a package. Forensic evidence leads the cops to where Biggs is hidden but it's too late to save his life.
Frank and Bletcher deduce that the killer must be another ex-con and are able to track down Bardale who leads them to the Judge. They take the Judge in for questioning who arrogantly offers Frank a job. He's certain he'll get away with it, and he's right. The cops have no tangible evidence, and must release him.
Though he eluded the authorities, the Judge didn't reckon with Bardale. On learning that the Judge manipulated conventional law to escape arrest, Bardale passes his own death sentence on the Judge for hypocrisy. Frank finds Bardale alone in the farmhouse kitchen, who tells Frank that the Judge was no Judge - he was a pig. Frank finds what's left of the Judge half-buried in the hog pen.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Bob Bletcher
Guest Starring
Marshall Bell as the Judge
John Hawkes as Mike Bardale
Chris Ellis as Jim Penseyres
Stephen James Lang as Det. Giebelhouse
Brian Markinson as Det. Teeple
Michael Puttonen as Pathologist Massey
David Fredericks as Jonathan Mellen
Kirsten Williamson as Mail Room Worker
J.R. Bourne as Carl Nearman
Donna White as Annie Tisman
Eva deViveiros as Assistant DA Aquila
Kate Robbins as Marilyn
Beverly Elliot as Terry
Gabe Khouth as Parcel Service Employee
Production Credits
Production #4C04
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Sheila Haley
Director of Photography Robert McLachlan
Associate Producer Jon-Michael Preece
Consulting Producer Ted Mann
Consulting Producer James Wong
Consulting Producer Glen Morgan
Co-Producer Ken Dennis
Co-Producer Chip Johannessen
Co-Producer Frank Spotnitz
Co-Executive Producer Jorge Zamacona
Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton
Co-Executive Producer John Peter Kousakis
Executive Producer Chris Carter
Soundtrack
“Danger” (1980) by Steve Goodman
”Short End of the Stick” (1996) by Donnie Fritts
”Ten Foot Pole” (1996) by Donnie Fritts
Location
Book Excerpt
“This single reference to Legion by name in Millennium was enough to inspire fans of the series to adopt the moniker in reference to the demonic forces that array themselves against Frank Black throughout the series. Certainly his meeting with the Judge also points to a larger threat of this nature and a considered plan. ”
—Adam Chamberlain
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“At their best the stand-alone, moral tale structure of these episodes—O. Henry by way of Flannery O’Connor—capture a distinct feeling of millennial unease, the sense that the violence perpetrated is a direct result of impending apocalyptic events to which Frank and his family are inextricably attached.”
—Keith Uhlich
Slant Magazine